This invention relates in general to special effects systems and in particular to an olfactory special effects system for motion pictures or other presentations.
Over the last twenty years, the motion picture industry has spent a significant amount of money to develop and incorporate special audio and visual effects in motion pictures. Some of the most successful motion pictures have been the ones that instill an emotional reaction or rekindle a memory in the audience. To date, however, the sense of smell has been virtually ignored as a method to accomplish these ends. With the ever-increasing competition of alternative entertainment venues, the movie exhibition industry will need a revolutionary way to entice the public to take the time and spend the money to attend the movies.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,320 to Wittek discloses an olfactory special effects system for motion pictures that attempts to accomplish the above-mentioned objectives. Unfortunately, the system described in the patent is not economically feasible. The system requires that each seat in each movie theater be modified to accommodate the scent delivery to the audience. An additional cost prohibitive element of the system is that each movie print in existence has to be modified to include numerous cueing strips throughout the print which trigger a scent switch box to change aromas. Yet another drawback of the system is that it uses compressed air that is noisy and detracts from the audio portion of the movie. In short, retrofitting a movie theater to accommodate the system described in the patent would be both too costly for theater owners and too distracting to the audience.
This invention relates to an olfactory special effects system for delivering scents to an audience during a motion picture or other presentation. The system includes a plurality of scent cartridges that contain respective substances for generating different scents. The system also includes a scent delivery unit having a plurality of compartments to contain the scent cartridges. The scent delivery unit further includes a device that generates an airflow and a mechanism that moves the scent cartridges individually from the compartments into the airflow to release their scents and create a scented airflow. The scent delivery unit also includes a controller that controls the mechanism to move different scent cartridges at different times during the presentation in order to release different scents in response to cues from the presentation. The olfactory special effects system also includes a scent outlet vent to deliver the scented airflow to the audience members. The system further includes a scent ductwork to channel the scented airflow from the scent delivery unit to the scent outlet vent.
Various objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.